


Prey Tell

by Amethyst42



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 23:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14067450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethyst42/pseuds/Amethyst42
Summary: Saru is given a gag gift.***My first fan fic in about a billion years. Constructive criticism always appreciated.Even funnier now that Runaway has been released!





	Prey Tell

No one owned up to the trembling little bundle at Saru’s usual table. The snickering indicated the likely suspects, but everyone side-eyed as he glanced from face to face.

The small furry quadruped, elongated ears twitching to and fro, was tethered with a velvet ribbon. And was chewing on the gift tag. “FOR SARU” was scrawled in crayon, someone doing their clench-fisted best to imitate a child’s writing. Gently plucking it from the creature’s nervous mouth, he flipped the tag to read “studies indicate prey animals are more comfortable in groups”.

Grunting, not from effort but disdain, Saru picked up the creature, basket and all. “I hope you don’t think I’m going to be responsible for this creature,” he sniffed. He was used to mockery, this was just another day at the starship.

***

In his quarters, the creature calmed considerably. Apparently, Saru’s idea of a comfortable environment was compatible with the mammal’s. “Computer, identify the creature I have in here with me.”

“Common earth creature. Kingdom: Animalia. Phylum: Chordata. Subphylum: Vertebrata. Class: Mammalia. Order: Lagomorpha. Family: Leporidae. Genus, Lepus. Species, L. americanus. Commonly called a snowshoe hare, or snowshoe rabbit. Shall I recite its genetic sequence?”

“Computer, please tell me about the lifecycle of this shoesnow hare.” The rabbit moved slowly about his living area, investigating the underneath of furniture.

“The snowshoe hare lives in northern temperate zone of North America. When the winter season comes, the hare’s coat changes colour from brown to white to give it better camouflage in the snow. The hare is the main prey of the Canadian lynx, a medium sized carnivore of the family Felidae. It’s life cycle- “

The rabbit rose up on it’s hind legs, a gentle paw on Saru’s bony knee. A quivering nose took in his essence. Their eyes met, and a wordless exchange let them know everything they needed to about one another.  
“Computer, please tell me about human cultural tradition involving hares and rabbits.”

***

“The rabbit died. The rabbit died. Indeed. Really.” Saru’s indignant mutter slunk along the hallway in disgust. Bobber, for that was now his name, calmly chewed a length of straw under Saru’s arm, indifferent to the deaths of his ancestors in the time before advanced pregnancy testing.

His holodeck time couldn’t have been scheduled better. “Computer, run simulation Saru Alpha-nine, Paluvian Slopes. Time of day, just before sunset.” It wasn’t his home world, but a place they’d visited looking for mycelium spores. There wasn’t a creature living on the entire planet larger than a cricket. The sound of hooves on tile changes to the soft ‘paff’ of the sandy, root tangled soil. New growth forest, not too tall, with plenty of underbrush.

He let Bobber down. The rabbit immediately tucked himself under a bush, and sniffed for several minutes. Saru waited, eyes to the ground, while his new friend acclimatized.  
When the creature seemed to become comfortable, the Kelpien crouched down. Bobber approached Saru, stretched up, rested his paw on his knee.

They looked at one another. And then they ran. 

Not from fear. 

Not to survive.

But for the sheer joy of it.


End file.
